Unadulterated Pap

May 26, 2009

Couple separate posts this a.m., as I conclude my Lessig review. But first, I have to rant and rave about the awfulness of Terminator Salvation. I know, a good fanboy would have posted this about five minutes after the first show on Thursday, which means I suppose that I’m just an ordinary moviegoer. SPOILERS AHEAD if you care.

Leaving aside all the gigantic plot holes (how does Christian Bale in his first scene climb out of the hole where he left his fellow soldiers and then look backwards to see them destroyed by a nuclear explosion several miles away; how is it that the radio never mind the helicopter controls survive the EMP from said explosion; how does Sam Worthington crawl out of that nuclear hole, the sole survivor, with all his skin still on? Isn’t it amazing that Sam and Christian have the same blood type and that heart transplants can be done in MASH unit tents?), the movie has no soul. It runs less than two hours, and like the equally abbreviated Golden Compass, terminates a franchise more via what it leaves out than what it puts in. T2 ran 2 1/4 hours in the theater, and succeeded because it made us care about the characters with strong acting and a strong script which deftly managed to incorporate the people into the thrills. Maybe director McG doesn’t want to touch the emotional stuff, FSM knows his previous efforts haven’t called on him to stop for character development. Christian Bale is made of wood, and the only character with whom we spend any time is Sam Worthington’s. In the end, Skynet is destroyed, only it isn’t, but only so the franchise can leave the door open for someone to do a reboot in, oh, ten years? Or however long it took someone to reboot Star Trek. In the meantime, this movie is the Alien 3 of the franchise.